I have maintained silence on the subject of the upcoming independence referendum here in Scotland. This was mainly because I believe a private vote is, er, private and we all need to get along after the vote no matter what the outcome. Also, there can be consequences of getting too engaged in the discussion.
Lest you think I’m being unduly cautious, I’ve already been advised elsewhere to fuck off and go seek a welcome with BNP and UKIP scum because I raised a querying eyebrow at some projected costs of setting up a new administration which looked to me, as a former civil servant, to be somewhat understated. A nice chap on Twitter the other day suggested that an encounter with a baseball bat would do me some good. Blowhards, of course, but enough to encourage me to opt for a quiet life.
I’ve changed my mind, though, mainly because the “campaign” and the “debates” have been so crappy, but also because of what seems to me to be a drift towards a form of mass lunacy.
Everything I’ve seen has been focused on some core issues to do with the real or supposed consequences of a “yes” or a “no” vote and a lot of that has been ill-informed junk and special pleading. I’ve seen this from both sides of the yes/no divide, though in the past couple of days the yes camp seem to me to have become particularly shameless and delusional.
For the most part, though, none of the debate has focused on the actual question asked in the referendum, which is not about consequences of independence, or about whether Scotland could be an independent country: the question is whether one thinks that Scotland should be an independent country.
My views on this are not influenced by the intervention of celebrities or politicians or journalists or anyone else – we are all free to make up our own minds and they are welcome to their views.
For all of my adult life (and I’m 55 this year) my answer to the question of whether Scotland should be independent has been no. I have never heard a convincing, or even a good, case made for independence. Nothing over this relentless and dreary campaign has caused me alter my view: in fact just the opposite. I can see no good reason why Scotland ought to be independent: not a single one.
So I’ll come out of the closet: I’m voting no. Naw. Nae chance.
We obviously inhabit very different circles! I too have not been forthcoming with my views on the independence debate, not simply because a secret ballot should be secret (though it’s not really is it as the ballot papers are numbered and your name checked off a sheet against the number – kind of the opposite of secret) but also because any time I raised my head above the parapet, I was greeted with accusations of racism, small mindedness and stupidity. It was often accompanied by the cry of ‘If the Scots are so hard done by, they should just f*** off, we’re better off without them – miserable lot’.
Anyway, as I’m sure your blog will be a far friendlier place, I feel I can pin my colours to the mast without fear of reprisal 🙂
I’m nowhere near as old as you, but like you I have been quite firm in support of my current view for well over 30 years. Not based on blind (braveheart) patriotism, but in the belief that societies (unlike banks apparently) can never be too big to fail. In fact the bigger societies become, the greater the risk of failure as inequalities grow and the privation of the masses leads to a breakdown.
The UK is, by many measures, extremely wealthy. It is also one of the most unequal societies in Europe, with London having the highest level of inequality of any city in the developed world. While I fear the result in September will be a narrow ‘NO’ , the cost to Scotland will be great as the fires of growth in London and the South will not be quenched by a surge of popular political motivation but rather fuelled by negative sentiment towards an apparently disgruntled electorate in the North. I would actually include the north of England here. Indeed, take the calls for Independence down as far as Leeds and the Edinburgh parliament would be nicely in the middle of a new federal republic 😉
My point is that, unlike Dan Snow and his Better Together war cry of “Together we are world beaters”, I don’t want to beat the world – I’d rather like to get on with it. Beating implies winning, winners implies losers. The more losers there are, the bigger the threats going forward. Small and cooperative, not big, brash and bullying. That’s my belief.
Nothing that has come from the No campaign has convinced me that I am either wrong, or that things will change – basically because nothing has come from the No campaign! Admittedly they can afford to be lazy as they are really arguing for a status quo and can easily pour scorn on the blind faith of nationalists heading into the unknown. They just fail to point out that the path of the status quo is also unknown!
As someone far more eloquent than I once said “An’ forward, tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!” And that kind of goes for either result!
So, emerging from a different closet: I’m voting Yes. Aye. Damn right!